1. THE THEORY OF BROKEN WINDOWS
CIVIL-2016-034
THE THEORY OF BROKEN
WINDOWS
AND THEIR EFFECTS ON
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
VICTOR M. HERRERA
Berkeley College Professor
Christopher Gerathy,
SOC 218 Police and Society
2. THE THEORY OF BROKEN WINDOWS
ABSTRACT
Victor M. Herrera is a Criminal Justice Major at Berkeley College. This research paper explores
three articles on the Broken Windows Theory and Zero Tolerance approach that manifested
controversial concerns with racial lines crossed. The articles describe the beginning of an era where
crime and tolerance of such behavior took on an entirely internal growth fostered by lack of supervision
and community concern leading to violence that some either did not expect or did not properly
consider. This paper examines the Police approach, the community response and the abuses that
followed.
The Term Broken Windows, or quality-of-life policing came from a 1982 article in the Atlantic written by
George Kelling and the late James Q. Wilson that in summary asserted that unaddressed disorder
encourages more disorder. From that follows crime and violence, says Current Commissioner William J.
Bratton, who popularized the “broken windows” approach to fighting crime, going directly at low-level
offenses to prevent serious, more violent offenses, a strategy that reduced crime in the Transit System
in the 1990’s, when Mr. Bratton was then Chief of the New York City Transit Police. (Broken Windows
and Quality-of-life Policing in New York City, William J. Bratton, Commissioner 2015)
In the Mid-1970’s, the State of New Jersey announced a “Safe and Clean Neighborhood Program”
designed to improve the quality of community life in twenty-eight cities. This approach led to favorable
opinion to the community in feeling secured in their neighborhood though rank and file disagreed with
the idea. In providing the reduction statistics, Commissioner Bratton first illustrated the disorder by
percentage compared to population, which the City accounted for 2.9 percent with the homicides at 9.6
percent of the nation’s when as excelled as a most violent period. The approach was intended to
3. THE THEORY OF BROKEN WINDOWS
address the little things that could lead to bigger things that no response would had displayed a further
rise in crime.
ZERO-TOLERANCE TACTICS
The expression zero tolerance can be traced back to the “Safe and Clean Neighborhood Program”
previously mentioned to improve the quality of community life. It became popular in 1982 when
criminologists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published their broken windows theory on crime.
Zero-tolerance is defined when the officer in the field is no longer permitted to act discretionally rather
enforce the law. Publicly enforced in 1994 by then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police
Commissioner William Bratton which exalted upon its implementation, crime stats dropped by 30 to
50%.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION TO ZERO-TOLERANCE
The proponents of zero tolerance policing pointed to the Success in New York and other studies that
demonstrated a direct impact to decrease in crime to the zero tolerance policing tactics employed.
Residents felt safe because there was a strong police presence. The opponents using the same studies
though showed that there was a decrease in the quality of life crimes, there was little to no affect in
violent crimes. It also found abuses where communities were targeted by racial lines that somehow
were permitted, which additionally the tactics used by the police while enforcing the law under the
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policy of zero-tolerance eroded the relationship between the police the communities they served. Zero
tolerance policing was the tough non-discretionary policing that led to Racial Profiling concerns and
community opposition that demanded police officers arrest every law violator they can find.
DISPARATE POLICE PRACTICES
There is no question that differences in policing exist. Nearly every research topic on this paper showed
percentage of racial and ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system outpacing the percentage of
such groups in the general population, holding that blacks and Hispanics make up more than 50% of all
prisoners, yet 25% of the population as a hold. The many different police practices have led to police
treating people differently because of membership in a particular class, such as race, gender, or
ethnicity, hence the community outcry in communities dominated by such particular class, as it seemed
the policy practices solely focused on such areas of crime incidence. One such example of a case was the
recent Ferguson, Missouri case involving accusations of racial profiling where the death of a young
African American male was killed by a white police officer, in which no Grand Jury action undertook.
Racial profiling takes disparate treatment one step further than negative treatment. It refers to police
practices that disproportionately target racial minorities for investigation and enforcement. Like the
Broken Windows and Zero Tolerance policies.
Policing have long been the subject of racial profiling. One other example was the stop-and-frisk.
Research showed stop-and-frisk was disproportionately used on minorities. In a stop-and-frisk, an
officer temporarily detains a person for questioning and a pat down of outer clothing without concrete
evidence of criminal activity. Instead, an officer can conduct a stop-and-frisk based on a reasonable
suspicion that the person is involved or preparing to commit a crime. Reasonable suspicion is a lower
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standard than probable cause because probable cause is that proof needed for a search or an arrest.
The U.S. Justice Department officially banned the use of racial profiling by federal law enforcement
agencies with the exception to identification of possible terrorism suspects. The negative impact is
found through most recent years where many law professional believe bias-based policing and racial
profiling are unconstitutional and illegal, violating the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable
searches and seizures and the Fourteenth Amendment right to be treated equally.
NEGATIVE IMPACT
Zero-tolerance has had is fair share of success however, the practices employed didn’t favor community
relations and were counter-productive. When people perceive law enforcement to be discriminatory, it
undermines policing efforts and leads to distrust of the Police and cooperation fails leading to lawless
behavior.
References:
Broken Windows, The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-
windows/304465/
Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy George Mason University. http://cebcp.org/evidence-based-
policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/broken-windows-policing/
Commissioner William Bratton, NYPD BROKEN WINDOWS AND QUALITY-OF-LIFE POLICING IN ... - NYC.g
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_planning/qol.pdf
